I am a Big Player
Chapter 188 - 186, Kunlun Approved (Fourth Update)_1

Chapter 188: 186, Kunlun Approved (Fourth Update)_1

How to make the original artwork cuter? Ren He pondered for a long time but couldn’t come up with an answer.

It was the female graphic designers who first suggested it: starting with modifying the loading screen artwork, avatars, and the login interface!

Now, the login interface, dark and sombre, felt a bit oppressive and needed to be changed.

Some of the originally fierce and ferocious heroes—tone down the fangs a bit, weaken the bloody aura, and sprinkle some little animals into the artwork...

Ren He was truly impressed by these girls’ imagination, but it turned out they were right. When the new models were made, Ren He felt as if Dota was about to adopt an entirely different art style...

A month passed, and although the programming for Dota was still lacking, Kunlun was ready!

If Dota could be considered a conscientious production, then Kunlun, at Qinghe Games, was more like a stepchild: no finely polished models, no vast game engine, no captivating storylines.

What it had were simple, mindless task modes, a wide variety of interactive modes, and a revenue model where you could pay to be awesome...

It was such a game that, while everyone still hoped to produce conscientious works in the gaming industry, Ren He, the unscrupulous game merchant, led gaming astray... Any web game that didn’t aim to rake in money was not a good web game...

What was the initial model for online games at that time? Time cards!

Yes, that was the only gaming revenue model everyone could think of: pay by the hour, buy online time if you want to play! At that time, there weren’t many ideas about how games could make money, and it seemed that everyone must be spending a lot on time cards, right?

But Ren He directly skipped the card model. With time cards, the wealthy had to inconveniently exchange money to dump cash, while Ren He’s philosophy was to display a different signboard: direct top-up, money makes the boss!

Ren He wished he could write "Big boss, come play" in the advertising slogan.

In that era, shamelessness was a kind of courage, but courage could make money, right? When did Ren He ever need a face?

So when Kunlun was finished, several gaming tycoons were at a loss for words, exchanging glances, until they finally asked, "Can this really work?!"

"Why not," Ren He said confidently, "What’s the goal of playing online games? Is it how fun the game is? Isn’t it just comparing levels, equipment, who has more tricks up their sleeves, and who’s more badass? I’ve provided them with the most direct way to climb the ladder, what’s there for them to be unhappy about?"

The gaming tycoons turned grim, thinking you speak so reasonably that we’re freaking speechless.

But on second thought, it seemed to make sense, right? Isn’t playing online games all about having a good time?

Ren He continued to reassure them, "You all know that the original intent of creating Kunlun was to make money, I’m not relying on it to build a reputation for Qinghe Games. Our main event is still Dota! With Kunlun making money, we can have our servers!"

The gaming tycoons left with darkened faces to continue working on Dota!

Anyway, Kunlun was already made, and nothing can be done about it now. As for how much influence Kunlun will have, let’s wait and see.

Game releases also have to go through an approval process, and this approval agency is very well known on the internet in the past life, often being complained about: the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television!

Why? Because the official term for the formal operation of games has always been "online publishing and operation," publishing...

Ren He really wasn’t familiar with this kind of bureaucracy, but luckily someone was. There’s always been a role for intermediaries in any era, handling driver’s licenses, company registrations, tax filings, all sorts of agencies!

Of course, game approval processes could be delegated as well.

Through introductions from gaming big shots, he found a company that specialized in handling procedures with the state administration, offering a flat fee of 30,000 yuan guaranteeing approval within a week. Hearing the price, Ren He was relieved; people these days are still naive, who knows how much it would cost in his past life.

Of course, that would first require the game’s content not to violate the bottom lines of the state administration—not a bureaucracy that you can just waltz through with connections.

How many big shots perished at the hands of this bureaucratic system in the previous life? What needed to be banned was banned, and what needed to be killed was killed.

Kunlun’s game featured only cartoon characters in its content, without any storyline alluding to anything controversial. Ren He wasn’t the least bit worried about such matters.

Then came the marketing segment. Ren He didn’t plan on spending too much money on it, just advertising in major gaming magazines and websites. If he were to do a bit more, it would involve bundling deals with other games, but Ren He really couldn’t be bothered with all that hassle.

Since he was going to advertise, it meant he needed a copywriter. Ren He truly wished he could incorporate phrases like "money wins" into the ad copy, but the game planners stepped in to stop him: "Even though that’s your plan, you can’t be so blatant, dammit! Attract everyone first, and then the tycoons will discover the truth themselves!"

Ren He thought about it and agreed. After all, in his previous life, Dream of the West didn’t promote how much money one could spend, and yet didn’t it rank third on the money-burning leaderboard? So, he decided not to include it in the advertising slogans.

The planners all breathed a sigh of relief after Ren He abandoned the idea. Their boss could solve one problem after another when making games, seemingly omnipotent; but his ideas during the marketing phase were too wild, too unconventional!

Their hearts simply couldn’t take it!

Eventually, the advertising strategy was set. The core wasn’t the content or winning by spending money, but the fact that spending money wasn’t necessary!

That was a fact. While other newly developed games required game cards for playing time, ours was completely free. If you really wanted to not spend a penny, you could do it – just complete tasks, nurture flowers and herbs. We wouldn’t refuse any customer!

Of course, without spending money, you’d just get trounced!

In an era where playing games still required purchasing game currency, what was most attractive? Not spending money was the most attractive!

So, from the very beginning, Kunlun’s advertising campaign focused on not spending money, until half a year into operations, players realized just how big of a scamming scheme Qinghe Games had pulled.

Sure, you could play without spending money, but only to have your face swollen by the tycoons, right?!

The second core strategy was to be the official game of the Kunlun novel. This mystified everyone at Qinghe Games. They were all aware of Kunlun, currently the hottest martial arts novel and soon-to-be prime-time TV series on CCTV.

But why did their boss have the game rights to Kunlun? That was simply unfathomable. Shouldn’t there have been countless people fighting over it? How did Ren He end up with it?

Ren He’s explanation was that he bought it casually.

Everyone was speechless. You just bought it, then you just bought it. Why add the word "casually"? Everyone felt their intelligence was insulted...

But regardless of how it happened, there was no doubt that Ren He had the rights to Kunlun, evidenced by the approval of the gaming operation license! This confirmed that Kunlun was a completely legal game; it wouldn’t have passed the approval otherwise.

Nowadays, the world places significant emphasis on the protection of intellectual property rights. During the operation review, the rights qualification was also audited directly.

To everyone, Ren He was becoming more and more mysterious.

In the end, signing advertising contracts with various websites and magazines only cost a total of 370,000 yuan, which was a drop in the ocean compared to the tens of millions typically spent on marketing big games.

But by that time, nobody was worried about whether or not Kunlun would be well-known to the public: It was the first online game with a free-to-play model, and it was the official game of the Kunlun novel. Before long, the Kunlun series would premiere in the prime-time slot on CCTV.

Moreover, the game planners themselves knew very well how innovative the game modes inside Kunlun were, how strong the interactivity was, and how extremely playable it was!

With the right time, place, and people, there was no reason for Kunlun not to be successful.

...

A bonus update as a reward!